Our Greeter today was Tina Buss and she did a marvelous job.
President Dan Crane rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Then Ralph Witcher
gave a very nice invocation including special mention of Mike Henry.
Today we intended to sing the National Anthem along with a video of Lady Gaga’s superbowl performance. There were some IT difficulties and we then tried an alternate video. Finally the rousing voices of the AWRC Chorus finished it very nicely. Then we said the Pledge of Allegiance.
President Dan says that the word from the country is from Mother Theresa who said “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”
GUESTS: Just the regulars, including Scott Hock, and almost-a-member Tina Buss.
President Dan showed many slides of photographs from last week’s activities starting with our speaker, then George Ikeda’s birthday party, our Ukrainian PT visitors, and including our fabulous dining out on Friday evening.
Ihor Fedoriw read a nice thank you note from our two Ukrainian visitors. They acknowledge the training and the hosting.
Grant Chair David Caccese thanked AW Rotarians for making the visit for the Ukrainians so successful. He noted that the Morning Call interviewed them at Good Shepherd. The dialog with them will continue over Skype into the future.
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW (PHF) AWARD:
Gloria Zimmerman received her PHF + 6 award today with Foundation Chair David Caccese presenting. David noted that it our support of the RI Annual Fund that allows monies to come back to us for grants.
TEMPTING TASTES 3:
We expect to have some Interact Students attend Tempting Tastes 3 and would like our members to sponsor them. It’s just $25 pp and so far we have six sponsored.
Gary Englehardt showed the fabulous photograph of his 1931 Ford Model ‘A’ created by Chris Hornaman, which will be in the TT3 auction.
Remember to buy and to sell tickets for this outstanding April 23rd event.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Dan continues to e-mail us an updated list of volunteer opportunities and future events.
Tempting Tastes 3 committee meeting is Friday March 3rd.
The next Thursday Evening meeting is a networking and mixer meeting at Eight Oaks on March 9th.
Mar 8th, is a Women’s Day meeting at Cedar Crest College. DG Linda Young is a featured speaker. Registration is open via the Chamber of Commerce.
Mar 11th, is the District Foundation Gala. Registration is closed.
OFFSITE MEETING:
Our regular Wednesday morning meeting on March 22nd will take place at Parkland High School. DO NOT COME TO LUTHER CREST.
MIRACLE LEAGUE:
Ginny Sandoval is asking for donations of Individually Wrapped small packages of candy that can be available for the Easter event for the children. Need is by March 15th so they can be assembled later.
March DINING OUT will be at 6 P.M. on March 24th at Carmel Kitchen in Allentown.
March 28th is the Charter Event for the Whitehall Area Club. The cost will be $25. There are currently 19 people signed up as new members. Location is Fellowship Community in Whitehall. No alcohol is available.
A Rotary Leadership Institute meeting is scheduled for April 1st in Media. President Dan says it is good stuff.
April 29th is the Parkland Community Resource day and Ray Stock needs volunteers to staff the info table.
May 6th -- Farm Fest at Ontelaunee Park; AWRC will have an Info table; volunteers are needed -- tell Ginny Sandoval.
AND, of course, you always can have your breakfast at our meetings sitting with Arch Klumph for a donation of $26.50 --- or more --- to the Rotary Foundation.
FOOD ALERT:
The folks at 29 Cooks will be bringing food samples here to our April 5th regular meeting. Don’t miss them.
NEXT WEEK our Greeter will be Wendy Weaver, and our program will be Kevin Merlo all about The World of Paints and Coatings..
LUCK of the DRAW:
Today ‘s door prize bottle of wine donated by Tina Buss was won by David Caccese.
Then Ginny Sandoval’s ticket was drawn and she selected a white marble and did not win the $80 in the 50:50 pot.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis, struggled to find offenders, but did sine President Dan Crane $5 for IT and other wrongs.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Joe Goll is happy to have spent 5 nights in Key West.
Ray Stock also is happy to have spent 12 days in Key West where he and Joe failed to meet although that was the plan.
Halyna Stegura is happy that last Saturday’s rain storm did not do damage even with a broken cellar window.
Chris Blechschmidt noted the great success of the Ukraine PT project just finished.
Ihor Fedoriw is happy that the NY City tour with the Ukrainians included walking up all of the stairs in the Statue of Liberty.
Mitch Huston is happy to be going to Dallas for 4 days. Then “Henny” told his weekly joke which turned out to get many laughs.
PROGRAM:
Herb Klotz gave some history of the planned water project in the Dominican Republic. Allentown West are partners with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) as well as the Fleetwood, Doylestown and Kutztown RCs. Fleetwood RC also have partnered with out Sierra Leone project in the past.
Fleetwood Rotarian Al Ottinger is the lead on this new project. He and others have been to the site and many local alliances have been formed.
There are two villages located in the northwest corner of the D.R. about 20 miles from the coast and 20 miles east of the border with Haiti. These villages are about 3 miles away from where the organized water – and electricity too – are available.
After analyzing the situation it was decided to plan to drill two new wells, one in each village, rather than tie into the nearby system which is low on volume and quality. And distribution systems are included.
The Global Grant covering the Rotary portion is for $50,000, and with other partners the project is about $500,000. Part of the plan is to establish written “Memoranda of Understanding” (MOU) with all parties. And local groups will manage the systems and the users will be paying for the water.
The initial plan is just to provide adequate potable water to the villagers. In the future there may be plans for water for agriculture too.
As these activities occurred there was a request to have the electricity extended to the two villages, and it was. This then allows for power to the well pumps.
Al said that they expect that the final technical approval from the EWB office will come this month.
CLOSING:
We recited the saying “They profit most who serve the best.”
.jpg)
